The Hitler Youth - the Hitlerjugend or HJ - was offically formed at the second Reichsparteitag (National Party Day) on July 4th, 1926.

Although the Hitlerjugend would become the only youth organization of Germany shortly after the NSDAP came to power in 1933, the HJ was certainly not the first attempt to formally organize German youth along political, social, or religious lines.

For example, the future Hitlerjugend would take on the notion of "youth led by youth" and incorporate it into its core of ideals, while the unique style of dress pioneered in the Wandervogel would continue on in many forms among most all of the new organziations.

www.feldgrau.com /hj.html (750 words)

SS-Kanonier Werner Saß(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

On the 11th of July the majority of 'Hitlerjugend' were pulled out of the line but the artillery regiment remained in support of 1.

At the beginning of August 'Hitlerjugend' was withdrawn from the frontline and became 1.

The remnants of the division broke out but approximately 400 of the artillery regiment were reported missing assumed captured as they attempted to extricate their guns.

I 1936Hitlerjugend, and BDM too,was declared "State Youth", and from 1939 all young people between 10 and 18 had to be members of Hitlerjugend/Bund Deutscher Mädel. You cold not refuse.

It is easy to make an impression on children, to indoctrinate them at least when they are young enough; and Hitlerjugend offered the children everything that was attractive in their eyes: walks in the wild, holiday camps, torch lit parades, sing-a-long evenings at the campfire.

They were also taught to obey, because Hitlerjugend had, as the party had, a strictly híeracic buildup.

home19.inet.tele.dk /antinazist/factorycalvesE.htm (1340 words)

Defeat of the 12th SS(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

The Hitlerjugend withdrew from Putot in the face of the Canadian attack, and streamed towards the embankment.

Though Hubert Meyer maintains that the Hitlerjugend had not conducted armoured operations that early in the day, suggesting that the Canadians had simply erred, it is evident that 3rd Division was assuming the next blow would fall in the area of Bretteville.

The Hitlerjugend attempted to shift the attack towards the south, but other tanks were ignited by the accurate artillery fire.

info.wlu.ca /~wwwmsds/haller.htm (6089 words)

MilitaryHistoryOnline.com - The HitlerJugend(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

It is much disputed if the Hitlerjugend was a political orgainsation, to train and grow the forthcoming elites of the Nazi-Regime.

The Hitlerjugend (short HJ) was already formed in July 1926, during the second congress of the National Socialistic Democratic Workers Party (the NSDAP).

In the beginning, the membership was voluntarily, but in 1936, the "Gesetz zur Hitlerjugend -Act of the HJ-" forced the young people of Germany into this organisation.

Conclusive testimony about the actions of the members of the "Hitlerjugend" within the cadre of the German armed forces was given by a German soldier prisoner of war, Hertom Knitel, himself a former member of the "Hitlerjugend" since 1938 on, who in 1942, at the age of 18, enlisted in the German Army.

But the activities of the "Hitlerjugend" during the war and of the defendant Schirach were not limited only to these crimes.

The "Hitlerjugend" actively participated in the preparation of the war of aggression by creating fifth columns in Poland and Yugoslavia; the official reports of the Polish and the Yugoslav Governments testify to this fact.

The Auslands-Organisation of the NSDAP had cells among Reichs-Deutsch citizens resident in Luxembourg, as did the Hitlerjugend, but these were not open to pro-German Luxemburgers or to the Volksdeutsche or the region.

In 1934 an eighteen year-old Luxemburger lad, Albert Kreins, had tried to enlist in the Luxembourg branch of the Hitlerjugend but was refused admission on the grounds that the Hitler Youth was restricted to the sons of Reichs-Deutsch.

The LVJ was also affiliated with the Hitlerjugend, and at the same time as conscription was introduced in August of 1942, was actually absorbed into it.

In the summer of 1944, the mostly teenage soldiers of the 12th SSHitlerjugend Panzer Division threw itself against the mighty Allied onslaught to retake Europe.

Organized in Antwerp, Belgium, in July 1943, the 12th SSHitlerjugend Division, of which the 25th was part, had been formed around a cadre of veterans from the 1st SS Panzer Division, the army and the Luftwaffe.

Most of its personnel came from the Hitler Youth leadership schools, and it was not uncommon to have boys of 16 in its ranks.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933 the non-Nazi youth organizations of the Third Reich were either disbanded or absorbed into the Hitler Jugend with the exception of the catholic organizations which survived until 1936.

In the film, I saw it waving in classes and on a field, at a sort of academy of the Hitlerjugend.

It is strange though that it actually looks like the Austrian flag with just a swastika on it, but I do not think that could be the explanation, since the film was not set in Austria.

Therefore they did not manipulate the young people in school but mass organizations like the Hitlerjugend and Bund Deutscher Maedchen were thoight to influence the youth even in their after school activities.

The purpos of it all was to let the students realize that they are a part of a superior, clean nation.

The Hitlerjugend and Bund Deutscher Maedchen were thought to emphasize what the youth learnt at school.

The outstanding fighting formation of the German forces during the battles in France was the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" and General Reynolds devotes much of the book to this unit, which is justified since the 12th SS was involved in the fighting throughout the beginning.

The Hitlerjugend Divisuion proved itself throughout the fighting, due in no small part to Kurt "Panzer" Meyer, who was one of the regimental commanders and later the commanding officer of the Division after the death of Fritz Witt, the Hitlerjugend's first commander.

General Reynolds is also even-handed in his examination of the alleged atrocities commited by members of the Hitlerjugend and also shows examples of Allied execution of German prisoners, particularly by Canadian troops (most of the documented execution of German prisoners by the Western Allies were commited by Canadians).

The film Swing gegen die Nazis shows that some young people - despite their compulsory membership of the Hitlerjugend and the increasing repression and the persecution of nonconformists - aspired to and enjoyed a cheerful and carefree youth.

In a certain sense they were the precursors of what we now call the post-war youth.

The film puts into perspective the apparent total domination of the Hitlerjugend and National Socialism on daily life in Germany in the pre-war years and shows that for some there was `freiraum'.

The huge success of the first national rally of the Hitler Youth held in Potsdam, on October 2 and 3, 1932, was not only a personal triumph for Baldur von Schirach but also a clarion call to arms for the movement and the party.

The threat of Red infiltration and subversion was one of the staples of Goebbel's technique and the Hitlerjugend propagandists mimicked the master, if not always with the same finesse and effectiveness.

The continuing hostility between the Hitlerjugend and the Greater German Youth Association, which was turning out to be a formidable competitor, forced von Schirach to seek additional power from Hitler.

West of Caen, close to the N 13 main road and to the Paris-Cherbourg railway, the Canadians and the Germans are facing each other.

On 8 June 1944 at Bretteville, 25 tanks leaded by the SSHitlerjugend division Commander, Kurt Meyer, run up against the Regina Rifle’s anti-tank guns; attacks and counter-attacks follow one another, the Germans must drive back.

The tanks of Fort Garry Horse fight in individual combat against the Panthers, through the narrow streets of the town; Rots is taken to the SS on 12 June, the German grenadiers leave 122 killed on the battlefield.